The AI Training Job Market in September 2026

On the 15 platforms tracked throughout, open roles went down 2.1%, from about 1,699 in the week of 7 Sep 2026 to 1,664 in the week of 21 Sep 2026.Finding 1

The median advertised rate of open roles moved from $65/hr to $55/hr between the first and the last week.Finding 2

Multilingual & Localization was the largest kind of AI training work, with 760 of 2,729 open roles (27.8%) on 30 Sep 2026.Finding 1

OpenTrain AI listed the most roles, 30.3% of all open roles on 30 Sep 2026; the five largest platforms together listed 80.0%.Finding 3

On 30 Sep 2026, 2,729 AI training roles were open across the job boards of 16 platforms; OpenTrain AI listed the most (30.3%) and Terac advertised the highest median pay ($90/hr).Summary

OpenTrain AI (30.3%), Invisible (19.5%) and micro1 (11.8%) listed the most open roles on 30 Sep 2026; the five largest of the 16 platforms held 80.0% of all open roles.Finding 1

Of the 11 platforms with at least 8 roles stating a rate, Terac advertised the highest median, $90/hr, and Braintrust the lowest, $20/hr.Finding 2

From 1 Sep 2026 to 30 Sep 2026, open roles on the 15 AI training platforms tracked throughout went up 4.2%: 6 grew and 2 shrank by 10% or more while 4 held steady, and the largest moves in roles were Mercor (-69 roles, -21.3%) and AfterQuery (+37, +23.0%).Summary

On the 15 platforms tracked throughout the window, open roles changed by +4.2%, on 860 new listings against 794 removals; 6 grew and 2 shrank by 10% or more while 4 held steady.Finding 1

On 13 Sep 2026, OpenTrain AI lost 612 listings and gained 319 at one read (70.6% of its removals and 45.6% of its new listings over 1 Sep 2026 to 30 Sep 2026, 127 arrivals repeating a departing title), so the batch is set aside as a re-key and kept out of its 380 new listings and 255 removals.Finding 4

On 30 Sep 2026, AI training listings were moderately concentrated overall (HHI 1,683 across 16 platforms); Red-Teaming & AI Safety was the most concentrated kind of work, led by Mercor with 81.6% of its open roles.Summary

Across all AI training work, listings are moderately concentrated (HHI 1,683 across 16 platforms); OpenTrain AI holds 30.3% of open roles.Finding 1

On the same platforms, concentration fell from 1 Sep 2026 to 30 Sep 2026 (HHI 1,993 to 1,860) and fell in 4 of 11 kinds of work; the largest move was in Agentic Tasks & RL Environments, from 3,149 to 5,200.Finding 4

From the week of 31 Aug 2026 to the week of 28 Sep 2026, on the same platforms, 7 kinds of AI training work had a market rate at both ends; Data Annotation & Labeling moved most (+14.3%), and Law, Medicine & Finance paid the highest median ($75/hr).Summary

On the same platforms, between the weeks of 31 Aug 2026 and 28 Sep 2026, the advertised median for Data Annotation & Labeling moved up 14.3% ($18 to $20/hr), and Multilingual & Localization fell 26.9% ($65 to $48/hr).Finding 1

Open Transcription, Audio & Speech roles changed the most, from about 172 to 332 a day (+93.2%), counting platforms added along the way.Finding 4

On 30 Sep 2026, for roles open to US residents, the best-paying platform advertised 2.09 times the rate of the worst-paying one in the typical kind of AI training work, and up to 4.33 times in Multilingual & Localization ($65 at Invisible against $15 at Welo Data).Summary

Among roles open to US residents, the widest gap for the same kind of work is in Multilingual & Localization: Invisible advertises a median of $65 an hour and Welo Data $15 (4.33 times).Finding 1

Across all roles, wherever they hire, the widest gap is in Multilingual & Localization: Invisible advertises a median of $65 an hour and Welo Data $10, 6.5 times as much, partly because the two hire in different countries.Finding 3

On 30 Sep 2026, 72.2% of 2,729 open AI training roles stated an hourly rate, with a median of $58/hr and 53.9% at $50/hr or more.Summary

Robotics & Physical-AI Data roles stated a rate most often (97.4%), Research Studies & Surveys roles least often (18.8%).Finding 2

3 of the 13 platforms with at least 10 open roles stated a rate on every role; TransPerfect DataForce stated one on none of its 66 roles.Finding 3

On 30 Sep 2026, 37.7% of open AI training roles accepted applicants from any country; residents of the United States could apply to the most (1,930 of 2,729).Summary

37.7% of the 2,729 roles open on 30 Sep 2026 accepted applicants from any country; 55.0% were limited to listed countries and 7.3% excluded some.Finding 1

Residents of the United States (1,930), India (1,658) and Germany (1,485) could apply to the most open roles; a resident of a country no posting names could apply to the 1,029 worldwide roles.Finding 3

On 30 Sep 2026, 2.8% of 2,726 open AI training roles had to be done on-site or hybrid, 83.7% were remote and 13.5% did not say; the largest group of on-site roles was data labelling and quality work, and most were in the United States, India and the United Kingdom.Summary

2.8% of the 2,726 AI training roles open on 30 Sep 2026 (76) must be done on-site or hybrid; 83.7% are remote and 13.5% do not say.Finding 1

368 open roles state no arrangement in their title, location or workplace field, 93.2% of them at Invisible, so the remote share is a floor.Finding 2

From 1 Sep 2026 to 30 Sep 2026, people on AITraining.jobs made 4,138 apply clicks; per open role, interest was highest in Agentic Tasks & RL Environments (3.3x the average role) and lowest in Law, Medicine & Finance (0.41x).Summary

Multilingual & Localization drew the most apply clicks: 436 of 2,351 (18.5%), followed by AI Evaluation & Rating (RLHF) (17.9%) and Transcription, Audio & Speech (14.8%).Finding 1

Per open role, Agentic Tasks & RL Environments drew the most applicant interest: 0.71 apply clicks a week, 3.3x the average role. Law, Medicine & Finance drew the least: 0.09 a week (0.41x).Finding 2

Compared within the same kind of work from 1 Sep 2026 to 30 Sep 2026, a listing under 14 days old went with 6.6 times the clicks per open role, 'freelance' in the title with 54% fewer and being open worldwide with 2.1 times: associations among the people who use AITraining.jobs, partly the site's own ranking of roles.Summary

Within the same kind of work, roles listed less than 14 days earlier drew 6.6 times the apply clicks per open role of roles listed before that, the strongest association measured (11 kinds of work compared).Finding 1

Roles in the top fifth of their kind of work's advertised rates drew 1.32 times the clicks per open role of their kinds' average, against 0.91 for the bottom fifth and 0.82 for roles stating no rate.Finding 4

On 30 Sep 2026, open AI training roles named 95 languages; English, Spanish and French had the most openings, and Lithuanian roles advertised the highest median pay ($65/hr).Summary

English (152), Spanish (87), French (76), Chinese (Mandarin) (58) and German (54) had the most open roles on 30 Sep 2026, of 95 languages named in role titles.Finding 1

Lithuanian roles advertised the highest median pay, $65/hr, and Telugu the lowest, $18/hr, among languages with at least 8 priced roles.Finding 3

On 30 Sep 2026, 1,113 open AI training roles named an expert field; Software & computer science, Finance, accounting & economics and Medicine & nursing had the most openings, and Psychology & mental health advertised the highest median pay ($150/hr).Summary

Software & computer science (208), Finance, accounting & economics (133), Medicine & nursing (107), Law (96) and Writing, editing & journalism (95) had the most open roles on 30 Sep 2026, of 17 fields named in role titles.Finding 1

Psychology & mental health roles advertised the highest median pay, $150/hr, and Voice acting, music & sound the lowest, $36/hr, among fields with at least 8 priced roles.Finding 3

On 30 Sep 2026, Engineering (non-software) was the hardest expert field to recruit for AI training work (scarcity index 1.88x, 1.00 = the market) and Law, Medicine & Finance the hardest kind of work (1.44x); 4 groups were scarcer than the market on all three measures: applicants per opening, time to close and pay.Summary

Engineering (non-software) is the hardest expert field to staff, with a scarcity index of 1.88x (1.00 is the market): its roles draw 0.24x the market's apply clicks per open role, its listings came down 18% less often than other roles of the same age on the same platforms, and it advertises $75/hr, 30% above the market median of $58/hr.Finding 1

No language with enough data is harder to staff than the average role; Spanish comes closest, with a scarcity index of 0.89x: its roles draw 0.88x the market's apply clicks per open role, its listings came down 7% less often than other roles of the same age on the same platforms, and it advertises $34/hr, 41% below the market median of $58/hr.Finding 2

Half of the AI training roles listed from 3 Aug 2026 to 30 Sep 2026 came down within 28.7 days of being listed; Agentic Tasks & RL Environments turned over fastest (median 8.3 days), and counting only removed roles would put the median at 10.5 days.Summary

Half of the 2,009 AI training roles listed from 3 Aug 2026 to 30 Sep 2026 came down within 28.7 days of being listed (Kaplan-Meier median), and 51.2% were still listed four weeks after going up.Finding 1

Counting only the roles already removed puts the median at 10.5 days; counting the 57.5% still listed too, it is 28.7 days, 173.0% longer.Finding 2

From 1 Sep 2026 to 30 Sep 2026, 88.7% of dated AI training postings fell on a weekday (Friday the busiest day), while people applied most on Monday and in the 14:00 UTC hour.Summary

Friday and Wednesday are the busiest posting days, with 51.6% of new postings between them (an even spread would give two days 28.6%); 88.7% carry a Monday-to-Friday date.Finding 1

Postings with a stated time are busiest in the 21:00 UTC hour (16.5% of them), and 33.5% fall in the 08:00 to 12:00 UTC block.Finding 3

On 30 Sep 2026, AI training roles were most often titled "Specialist", "Expert or SME" and "Trainer"; roles titled "Lead or manager" advertised the highest median pay ($78/hr).Summary

The most common title words were Specialist (22.7% of open roles), Expert or SME (21.7% of open roles) and Trainer (21.1% of open roles).Finding 1

Roles titled "Lead or manager" advertised the highest median ($78/hr); roles titled "Rater" the lowest ($10/hr).Finding 2

From the week of 7 Sep 2026 to the week of 21 Sep 2026, on the 15 platforms tracked throughout, Trust, safety & child protection grew fastest among expert fields (+18% open roles), Spanish among languages (+26.5%) and Data Annotation & Labeling among kinds of work (+25.7%).Summary

Trust, safety & child protection grew fastest among expert fields on the 15 platforms tracked throughout, from about 13 open roles in the week of 7 Sep 2026 to 15 in the week of 21 Sep 2026 (+18%), with 3 new listings from 1 platform; Law shrank the most (-24.5%).Finding 1

Spanish grew fastest among languages on the 15 platforms tracked throughout, from about 37 open roles in the week of 7 Sep 2026 to 47 in the week of 21 Sep 2026 (+26.5%), with 20 new listings from 6 platforms; Polish shrank the most (-21.1%).Finding 2